Easter is still a great day for celebrations and egg hunts, but climate change is making it worse for bunnies. Rising temperatures are harming at least five species of US rabbit, reports Dean Kuipers at the LA Times. The endangered Lower Keys Marsh rabbit is already severely affected by Florida Keys development, and now, by sea-level rise. Just a 3-foot rise, which many consider likely by 2100, will wipe out these cute cottontails completely. Snowshoe hares are suffering dysfunction in fur color, controlled by the daily number of sunlight hours. But longer, snow-free seasons means the animal is still colored winter white in a dark, snow-free landscape in spring and fall, making it easy for predators to spot; hunters note its numbers are already down. American pikas or rock rabbits, related to rabbits, live high in the cool, moist mountaintops west of the Rockies, but higher temperatures could trap them, forcing them into extinction. The tiniest US bunnies are endangered pygmy rabbits, each less than a pound and living among western sagebrush. Besides habitat loss from development, they now experience less snow, which means less winter cover from predators.

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About melharte

Mel (Mary Ellen) Harte is a biologist (PhD) and climate change educator. She co-authored the free online book, COOL THE EARTH, SAVE THE ECONOMY, available at www.CoolTheEarth.US, and writes the CLIMATE CHANGE THIS WEEK column at the HuffingtonPost. Living summers in the alpine Rockies, she is on the frontlines of watching what climate change can do. Her diagnostic digital photographs of wildflowers have appeared in numerous publications.